Clinics & Consultations

Clinics & Workshops

I’m available for traditional clinics and Concept Clinics(such as Calming Signals, Dressage Rhymes with Massage, and Rhythm and Dance, as well as Contact, Bend, and Writing Workshops), in the U.S. and internationally. I’m happy to design the day to suit your group’s requests, whether individual lessons, group riding, or a combination. I require dressage-legal bits and helmets for riders. All saddle types are welcome. Clinic day-rates discounted to non-profit groups. Contact me for more information about hosting or attending a clinic and please mention your location.

Scroll down for more Concept Clinic descriptions and the upcoming schedule.

Private Consultations with Anna: A telephone consultation or online lesson could give you a new perspective on a current challenge, as well as creative ideas going forward. Share a video of a ride or behavior; we can live chat or talk on the phone. Sessions are US $80. per hour, contact me for more information and an appointment.

Join us at the R&F Barn, an online membership group interested in Calming Signals and Anna’s affirmative training methods, using podcasts, videos, Q&A, and live chats about all things equine. Start anytime, this is not a time-specific course of study, but instead an ongoing group, following wherever the group leads, committed to learning, supporting each other, and doing our best.

Available for public speaking engagements, book-talks, and workshops on topics related to horses or writing. I’d love to hear your questions and ideas.

Concept Clinics: A different approach

Concept Clinics give participants an opportunity to explore a related group of ideas with exercises designed to clarify and deepen the awareness and practice of fundamental principles of communication and training.

Calming Signals One. If you are standing next to your horse and he looks away, do you think he’s distracted or even disrespectful? When your horse yawns, is he sleepy or bored? If he moves slowly, is he lazy? Calming Signals is a concept clinic on the ground and/or mounted. We’ll learn to read and respond to calming signals with special attention to comprehension (active listening, intention, and complacency). It’s an equine-focused approach to haltering, leading exercises, and your body language. I’ll say breathe a few thousand times. On day two, we move to the saddle and review calming signals while mounted, as well as ways of encouraging your horse to be a willing volunteer who likes the arena. We’ll also spend time doing horse agility, where the conversation is the most fun.

New! Calming Signals Two: Affirmative Training. How many times have I heard people say that they didn’t like the old domination method, but it was all they knew? It’s time to update those Neanderthal training techniques. This clinic marries the brain science of how horses think and learn with affirmative training techniques. We’ll deepen our understanding of Calming Signals from our horses, with a special emphasis on how humans can best communicate using our own calming signals to embody partnership and safety to the horse. This clinic is human-focused, training the rider a philosophy and techniques that pair clarity and kindness, prioritizing the horse’s welfare, remembering that our energy in training is more important than the task or riding discipline. Affirmative training mentors understanding, confidence, and most of all, the desire to engage and TRY, between humans and horses who are reactive or shut down or just ready to take a leap ahead. Day one is on the ground and day two is mounted or groundwork, your choice. Calming Signals One a prerequisite.

Dressage Rhymes with Massage. If your horse is young, sound, and has had all the advantages, it takes twenty minutes for the synovial fluid to warm his joints. And that same twenty minutes for you. Warm up is by far the most important part of the ride for strength and positive attitude. This is a relaxed and forward Concept Clinic, using warm-up methods designed to help a horse be physically and mentally responsive. We’ll start with exercises to systematically warm-up each part of your horse physically, as well as engaging him mentally. When a horse is properly warmed up, he literally feels good and that creates a positive connection and a willingness to work. This clinic makes young horses steadier, midlife horses stronger, and elder horses more supple.

New! Contact: Holding Hands with Horses. “Contact is like holding hands with someone you are so comfortable with, that there’s overlap where they begin and you end. Good contact is moving forward through space without gravity or dependence on anything more concrete than the flow of movement that is oneness.” Rather than conversations about which bit is kinder, we’ll explore a lighter approach to kind contact on the reins. It’s the most subtle and challenging work a rider can take on; learning to maintain a neutral seat and soft hands, moving in rhythm and balance with a horse. Learning to quiet our instinct to control a horse’s face and instead, ride the entire horse, relaxed and forward. There is simply nothing more important to your horse. Dressage Rhymes with Massage is a pre-requisite.

New! Bend, like the soft edge of a crescent moon, is relaxation and strength in fluidity. Bend refers to that sweet outside arc of the horse, encouraged by a body to body conversation. We’ll address the idea of a ‘stiff’ side and a ‘soft’ side and do exercises to create supple balance in the horse and the rider. The clinic goes on to include light lateral work and riding strong circles, on a long rein as well as on contact. Dressage Rhymes with Massage is a pre-requisite.

Rhythm and Dance Clinic. Rhythm is the foundation of the Dressage training pyramid. Rhythmic movement promotes relaxation (walking, grazing, trotting) and bad reactions always include a loss of rhythm (spooking, bucking, bolting.) We’ll use ground pole exercises to balance transitions, with a special focus on the use of seat and legs to encourage rhythm and alter stride within gaits, using half-halts and lengthenings. This clinic includes Riding to Music and finishes with a quadrille or group ride.

New! Relaxed & Forward for Writers: An add-on half-day or whole day writing workshop. We’ll cover some practical information about software that makes writing easier, methods to create a writing habit, and explore wordplay- getting words to work for you. Whether creative writing or non-fiction, novice or professional, if you love reading and writing, this is a day of inspiration. Learning to write with clarity and intention benefits all forms of communication, whether writing for business, preserving your family history, or telling the story of a horse you knew. It isn’t about whether you want to publish, it’s about telling a story.

Possible topics include:

Writing for Riders: The Passion of Horses and Words (Writing the Legend: The Story of your horse. Journaling about your riding as a method of deepening learning. Plus, fun writing exercises in the horse world.)

How to Write and Publish a Memoir When You’re Nobody. Ever thought of writing a book? This is a how-to process for writing, editing, and publishing.)

Making Friends with Readers: How to use a blog to hone your writing skills, create a book, and build a reader base.

Anna Blake is the author of four books. Stable Relation, a Memoir of One Woman’s Spirited Journey Home, by Way of the Barn, (a Peoples’ Choice Gold Medal Winner,) Relaxed & Forward: Relationship Advice from Your Horse, Barn Dance: Nickers, brays, bleats, howls, and quacks: Tales from the herd, and Horse Prayers, Poems from the Prairie. She blogs at AnnaBlakeBlog: Relaxed & Forward, a Horse/Life blog.

The first step is to CONTACT ME to ask for more information, prices, and a calendar date.

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